Santa Monica 10/21

Adult Children, All Poems, Beaches, Family, Farewell, Grandchildren, Memories, Prose/memoir, Santa Monica 10/21, Trips and Places

Yesterday, My Feet Bade Farewell, To Dan & Ozzie

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Yesterday, my feet bade farewell to Santa Monica.
My son and his, tucked in a backpack,
walking toward Pacific Palisades.
By water’s edge on a late Saturday afternoon.
Broad beach, mostly empty of bathers except for a mother and son.
Flying a green kite tethered to a cart.
Cool breezes.
Warm sunshine.
Packed sand, easy tread.
Tidepools, sandbars.
Kelp, a few stones, even fewer shells.
An occasional small plane, helicopter overhead.
And, of course, crashing waves.
Perfect score for Ezzie’s hundred and one questions:
What is seaweed?
Why is it on the shore?
Why do clams have shells?
How do kites fly?
What do birds eat?
So, it went.
One more last.
Snippets of conversations, explanations, observations burrowing into my consciousness.
I promise I’ll remember the scene with toes, fingers, eyes, ears.
Will you remember it, too?

Lynn Benjamin
October 10, 2021

All Poems, Children, For Children, Pandemic, Santa Monica 10/21, Trips and Places, Worry

Rules

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Have you noticed rules are posted everywhere?
Parks.
Schools.
Airports.
Train stations.
In streets, hotels, eateries.
Now with Covid, they have multiplied.
But rules have never bothered me.
I thought rules had utility, purpose.
Prevented problems, provided safety.
In short, they helped me and others co-exist.
A noble goal.
Lately, I’ve noticed lots of people flaunting rules.
Smoking in no-smoke zones.
Taking pets into no-pet beaches.
Biking on promenades outside of hours.
Refusing to wear masks where they’re supposed to.
Provoking problems in stores, clinics, on public transport.
Scoffrules worry me.
How can ordinary parents socialize children?
When grownups reject rules?
If we want kids not to scream, bite, spit,
then agree not to be a hypocrite.
Do what’s right for ourselves, for others,
not what we please, whatever our druthers.

Lynn Benjamin
October 6, 2021

All Poems, Children, Family, Grandchildren, Natural Beauty, Santa Monica 10/21, Trees, Trips and Places

Santa Monica

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Like most cities, Santa Monica has a rhythm, a flavor, a smell.
A meld of antique and new.
Aromas of citrus, rosemary, lavender.
Soil, fertile, rich.
Countless varieties of bushes, shrubs, flowers.
Trees deciduous and tropical.
Tall palms silhouette against a pink ribbon sky at dawn.
Rain, rare.
Even lizards smile.
The city pulls you close.
Ready to embrace you if you’re willing.
To lure you to  beach, park, coffee shop, or spa.
The spell,  best for me pre-dawn.
In  silence, darkness, solitude of the streets.
But when the sun crowns,
my eyes set on two towheaded brothers.
Living in a world of wonder.
Wishing to ride on backs of seagulls,
catch shadows,
study airplanes, boats.
Settle into their post-pandemic haven
like palms, maples, magnolias.
Or maybe like those gnarly, twisted roots of jungle figs.

Lynn Benjamin
October 3, 2021

 

All Poems, Family, Grandchildren, Halloween, Holidays, Santa Monica 10/21, Trips and Places

An October Pre-Dawn Walk

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An October pre-dawn walk in Santa Monica
calms, refreshes.
Stars still occupy their places in the sky.
A little chill alerts the maples to drop their leaves.
And despite the palms, succulents, shore, sea,
Halloween is serious business here.
Witches, goblins, ghosts, skeletons proliferate
on lawns, in shop windows.
A little scary till sunshine blooms at the end of streets.
Warming sidewalks.
Pink ribbons begin to light tops of mountains, sea.
By mid-afternoon, there’s no place for spiders, ghouls to hide.
Every inch of the city sparkles.
Back to the usual weekend schedule:
farmers’ market, park, play, nap, beach.
Is it really Halloween season in Santa Monica?
When Ez and Arthur carve pumpkins, don costumes, I suppose it is.

Lynn Benjamin
October 9, 2021